Seasonal Changes
by Smile Life Away
Summary: For Andromeda and Ted, things are different in the summer. Written for the Summer Love Challenge


**A/N: Written For the Summer Love Challenge**

**Disclaimer: I Own Nothing**

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"I can't believe you persuaded me into coming here."

"There was no real persuasion behind it. I just asked."

Ted flashed a smile. Andromeda's only response was a roll of the eyes before she continued to create ripples in the water with her index finger.

They were sitting by a pond in a little Muggle park behind a row of trees around one-hundred years old and a boulder sporting a plaque of the park owner's name. Needless to say, they were all but invisible to passerbyers.

"Humor me." Andromeda pulled her finger out of the water and turned to Ted, "At least pretend you begged."

"No way." He shook his head, the smile refusing to leave his face. "I've had this entire school year to beg, and once summer ends I'll have another one to beg and plead…_Andromeda please…you can leave your Slytherin friends for a few seconds…why does it matter what Bellatrix says? _Right now, I'm simply going to enjoy my victory." He leaned back against the boulder, smile still plastered on his face. His bright blue eyes sparkled, or at least the one that Andromeda could see did; the other was conveniently covered by his mop of feathery blonde hair.

"Things are easier in the summer." She answered**, **though he hadn't asked why she'd agreed today.

"Why?" He sat up. "Is it the blistering heat, the pregnant white clouds just waiting to burst open and give glorious drops of rain—?"

"How poetic." Andromeda smirked. "No. That's not it."

"Well it's not as if your family disappears during the summer, Dromeda."

"Oh, but they do."

"This ought to be interesting…how is it that they disappear?"

"During the summer**,** I can slip away and no one even notices that I'm gone. Bella is off doing who knows what, Cissy is _always _with Malfoy, and my parents don't expect me to be home so they don't even bother to ask where I'm going."

"And during the school year?"

"It's just…different."

"Sure it is." His smile finally fell.

"I know you don't understand." She turned back to the water and resumed with her ripples.

"Sure I do. When we're at school you're in Slytherin and I'm a Hufflepuff. You're a Black and I'm a Muggle-born. And your sisters are watching you all of the time." He paused, "I get it, Dromeda, I understand. I just don't see why it matters."

"Because they're my _family_." She stressed, "And maybe that doesn't mean anything to you, but it means everything to me."

"Sure it does." Ted shrugged, "But it's not like we're getting married or anything, we're just at a park, or Three Broomsticks, or Fortescue's—"

"That doesn't _matter_ to them, Ted. It just doesn't. To them you're a…a…well you're a—"

"A Mudblood." He finished for her with an empty voice, by now desensitized to the slur she had once said so freely.

"Yeah." Andromeda flushed red. If the conversation had not been so serious**,** he might have laughed.

"Well…that's when schools starts right?" He attempted to salvage the conversation, "Once school starts you'll go back to ignoring me and being a Slytherin and a Black. But for now it doesn't matter."

"And you're okay with that?" She looked back up at him, her great brown eyes widening.

_No, I hate it more than anything. I wish there wasn't any sneaking around. I wish you weren't ashamed of me. I wish it didn't matter that I was a Hufflepuff and a Muggle-Born._"Of course I am." As usual, his lie went completely over her head.

Andromeda smiled and Ted couldn't resist the urge to smile back.

After the sun had sent and he had walked Andromeda as far as the end of the park, Ted headed home with his head bent and his hands stuffed into jeans much too old and largely worn. His parents would probably be concerned as to why he was so late. He had probably missed dinner. No matter; it was worth it. Once summer ended, everything would go back to the way it had been and Ted Tonks would become just another Hufflepuff, not worthy to even look at the Slytherin princess with the dark hair and bright brown eyes. Ted Tonks would become just another Mudblood.


End file.
